About

TEDx Silicon Valley

Directions to TEDx Silicon Valley 2011

TEDx Silicon Valley gathers some of the world’s leading thinkers, makers, and doers to discuss social innovation. Located on Stanford’s campus and hosted in partnership with the Center for social innovations, a center at the Stanford’s Graduate School of Business educating leaders to solve the world’s global problems, it is a day of stimulating presentations, discussions, entertainment, and art that sparks new ideas and opportunities for all involved.

TEDx Silicon Valley hosted its first conference on December 12, 2009. With 26 speakers and performers on the main stage, 300 participants, more than 100,000 individuals and groups from 45 countries who tuned to the live stream, and over 11.8 million social media impressions – we accomplished our goal to help share the TED ideas, and inspire innovation for social change.

On May 14th, 2011, TEDx will host its second conference featuring a new roster of impressive and engaging speakers who will explore the emerging concept of Living by Numbers for a curated audience of Silicon Valley thought leaders. The conference will take place in Stanford’s Cemex Auditorium at the Stanford Graduate School of Business brand new Knight Management Center.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx Silicon Valley is part of a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provided a license and general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

The leadership team creating TEDx Silicon Valley is composed of successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, artists, social media mavens, philanthropists, MD’s and PhDs who are collaborating together to build a very special day that will lay the foundation for a strong TEDx presence in Silicon Valley, and will inspire our community members to engage in innovation for social change.

About TED

TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design – three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. And in fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. Attendees have called it “the ultimate brain spa” and “a four-day journey into the future.” The diverse audience – CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists – is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize